Final Approach Review

Sorry if there's been a lack of activity, I've had to deal with an injury that's just making me more tired, I'll update Project 1000 tomorrow but for now expect a couple of posts.

Final Approach was originally a visual novel for the PS2; the story goes, the Japanese government are trialing a scheme that is meant to put an end to the declining birth rate by essentially creating tons of arranged marriages.
Ryo the main character gets dragged into the scheme when Shizuka literally crashes into his life by declaring herself as his fiancee but the stubborn Ryo refuses, so it's up to Shizuka to convince him all the while dealing with another girl who gets stuck in an arranged marriage of her own and of course as this is a harem anime there's a little sister as well, along with a childhood friend and a supporter.
If the characters look familiar, basically find a picture of an anime bride and you are guaranteed to find at least one of the five girls.
At this point lets do the harem check.
Shizuka Masuda: The character who starts the whole thing, overly affectionate to the point of being intrusive, she is backed up by her own security force to make impossible things happen, it's hard to feel sympathy for her after she takes intrusion too far, while it's nice not to see a tsundere main, what we do have is not great.
Akane Mizuhara: The little sister, she's just a few steps away from being a wilting wallflower but it never goes too far, in fact her presence is low.
Emiho Mutsu: The other love interest who gets stuck in her own arranged marriage, her opinions on the crazy scenario really puts the story into perspective and is easily the best girl.
Miki Moriya: The childhood friend who gets very little time to show herself off, basically she acts as the hammer to keep Ryo in check and also take advantage of the extra friends Ryo makes.
Yurika Meno: Is not in the harem as she dates and later marries Ryo's guardian Haru, she and Haru act as outsiders to the chaos, Haru actually puts Shizuka in her place when she goes overboard with her security force during a fight in the cafe.
You could easily write this off as another tacky harem show but it has a few surprising moments, as Ryo points out frequently, this doesn't feel real and his reactions are believable but it's undone slightly when the other girls are willing to take Shizuka's side not seeing how wrong it is to force a one sided marriage.
When it's revealed why Shizuka is doing this, there's no investment as it's episodes only run for 12 minutes and we don't see any smooth transitions between episodes.
Not sure if there is a dub but I haven't seen it.
I think you'll be better off with the game, at least the narrative there is cleaned up.
Final Verdict: It has it's moments, Ryo doesn't feel like a dumb harem protagonist and the chibi comedy is cute but with so little run time there's not enough investment to care what happens to the characters and you as the viewer won't easily sympathise with Shizuka despite the anime wanting you to.

End